Byers, Mark (Olson, Charles)

Charles Olson and American Modernism: The Practice of the Self

ISBN: 9780198813255
Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press, 2018. First Edition. Hardcover. "This volume situates the work of American poet Charles Olson (1910-70) at the centre of the early postwar American avant-garde. It shows Olson to have been one of the major advocates and theorists of American modernism in the late 1940s and early 1950s; a poet who responded fully and variously to the political, ethical, and aesthetic urgencies driving innovation across contemporary American art. Reading Olson's work alongside that of contemporaries associated with the New York School of painting and music (as well as the exiled Frankfurt School), the book draws on Olson's published poetry as well as unpublished writings, lectures and notes. The development of Olson's work is seen to illustrate two primary drivers of formal innovation in the period: the evolution of a new model of political action pivoting around the radical individual and, relatedly, a powerful new critique of instrumental reason and the Enlightenment tradition." (from dust jacket back cover) A dense, deep dive of scholarship worthy of its towering subject: The life, work & influence of Charles Olson, the Great Black Mountain-&-Beyond poet's-poet who is our favorite Maximus Obscurantist. Author Mark Byers is a doctoral alumnus of the venerable Oxford University & a respected academician at Newcastle Univeresity in the UK. This fairly recent volume, a part of Byers' alma mater's Oxford English Monographs series, demonstrates the ever-widening ripples of Olsonian Skullership & discoveries since his untimely passing in 1970. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, first edition, first printing ("Impression: 1") as stated at copyright page. From the collection of Albert Glover (b. 1942), the esteemed American poet, scholar, bibliographer, editor & publisher who is the foremost living authority on Olson- the Maximus Master himself mentored & anointed Glover during the 1960s, & he has ever-since served outstandingly as the Gloucester Sphinx's bibliographer, editor & publisher. An already scarce, rich & rewarding Olson-related study in its rarest contemporary form; with the highest & most relevant provenance. Book in very fine condition with only a touch of wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; otherwise appearing substantially mint inside & out. Dust jacket very fine with only a hint of rubbing, faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same & flaps. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #8423]

Price: $80.00